Israel continues to expand its ground offensive across Gaza, with foreign minister saying the head of Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group could be Israel's next target.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has announced that it has located and destroyed three tunnel shafts in the area of Gaza City’s Rantisi Children’s Hospital that connect to underground passages beneath the medical center used by the Hamas terror group.
So far, in Gaza, over 21,000 people have been killed and more than 55,000 wounded in Israeli attacks since October 7 Hamas infiltration.
Israel-Gaza conflict Day 83 | Key Updates
-Palestinians Flee to Overcrowded Refuges as Israel's Gaza Offensive Expands: Hundreds of thousands of people seeking refuge have been reaching the Palestinian town of Deir al-Balah, whose typical population is of 75,000, amid Israel's expanding ground offensive across Gaza.
Some of the new arrivals Wednesday at Deir al-Balah travelled by foot or rode donkey carts loaded with belongings, an AP report mentioned, adding that many crowded onto streets around the town's main hospital, others set up tents on sidewalks.
According to Palestinian health officials, dozens were killed in Israel's heavy strikes across the centre and south of the territory on Wednesday.
-Aid Deliveries Hit Due to Ground Offensive: UN humanitarian office said the scale and intensity of ground operations and fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups in most areas of Gaza is delaying aid deliveries.
“Operational challenges due to insecurity, blocked roads and a scarcity of fuel are also hampering the humanitarian response,” the office, known as OCHA, said in a statement Wednesday. OCHA also warned that telecommunications blackouts are making communications and internet service unreliable and also impacting humanitarian deliveries.
-Israel Says Militant Leader in Lebanon Could be Targeted: Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said the head of Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group could be Israel's next target. Cohen made the statement a day after a Hezbollah strike wounded 11 people in northern Israel.
Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed group, has fired missiles and rockets into Israel throughout the two-and-a-half month war between Israel and Hamas. Israel has responded dozens of airstrikes and artillery barrages.
-Egypt's Proposal For Gaza: Egypt has presented what is described as an ambitious plan to end the war in Gaza with a ceasefire. The proposal, developed with the Gulf state of Qatar, aims to broker a permanent ceasefire in Israel's war in the Gaza Strip, where more than 21,000 people have been killed, and the majority of the 2.3 million Palestinian residents have been displaced so far.
-'War on Hamas Will Last Months', Says Israel's military chief: Israel's military chief Herzi Halevi said on Tuesday the war on Hamas will last months. In a televised statement from the Gaza border, Israel's chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said, "There are no magic solutions, there are no shortcuts in dismantling a terrorist organisation, only determined and persistent fighting. We will reach Hamas's leadership too, whether it takes a week or if it takes months."
WATCH HERE:
-What Happened on October 7: Hamas, a Palestinian militant group that has been designated as a foreign terrorist organisation by the United States, infiltrated from the Gaza Strip into bordering areas in Israel under what the outfit later termed was ‘Operation Al Aqsa Flood’. Many purported videos on the internet showed Hamas entering Israel in vehicles like pickup trucks, boats, and even with motorised paragliders to breach the security barrier and attack Israeli towns, residents, and military posts. This escalated into a full blown war between the two sides after Israel’s Netanyahu vowed to exact a price for the October 7 massacre.
-What Led to October 7 Attack: While there have been smaller conflicts between Hamas and Israelis, there were no major engagements between the two sides since the 2021 Israel-Palestine crisis. Some reports cited anonymous source "close to Hamas" claiming that the outfit reduced military activity in a bid to deceive Israel into believing Hamas was not a threat.
-Israel-Gaza Conflict Death Toll: More than 21,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants among the dead. About 1,200 people were killed after Hamas raided southern Israel on October 7, with around 240 people taken hostage.
